Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1. Sidwell doesn't face the same competition as New England/NY/Philly Boarding schools do. It is widely known as the best school in the D.C. area, and every top school stops by to recruit/take students from there.
2. Sidwell is quite small, with only 80 or so people in each graduating class. Compare this to Exeter and others, which have 200 or more.
3. By virtue of its small size and lack of competition, Sidwell can take the best students out there. The average SAT/ACT are comparable to that of the lower Ivies, so the student profile is quite strong. Students themselves are also interested in the Ivies to a greater degree than those at other schools, so the numbers look high.

The above post is just plain wrong -- in several key respects:

1. Sidwell is not "widely know as the best school in the DC area" -- the consensus is that it's one of the best, which is different from being THE best.

2. As others have pointed out, the class size number is way off -- try 120.

3. Many of us know plenty of students who have chosen NCS/STA or GDS or Maret over of Sidwell, rejecting Sidwell's offer of admission. It isn't every "best student's" top choice.

Sidwell is a terrific school, but it's not the only terrific school.

Sidwell is widely known as the best school in the DC area.

Anonymous wrote:1. Sidwell doesn't face the same competition as New England/NY/Philly Boarding schools do. It is widely known as the best school in the D.C. area, and every top school stops by to recruit/take students from there.
2. Sidwell is quite small, with only 80 or so people in each graduating class. Compare this to Exeter and others, which have 200 or more.
3. By virtue of its small size and lack of competition, Sidwell can take the best students out there. The average SAT/ACT are comparable to that of the lower Ivies, so the student profile is quite strong. Students themselves are also interested in the Ivies to a greater degree than those at other schools, so the numbers look high.

The above post is just plain wrong -- in several key respects:

1. Sidwell is not "widely know as the best school in the DC area" -- the consensus is that it's one of the best, which is different from being THE best.

2. As others have pointed out, the class size number is way off -- try 120.

3. Many of us know plenty of students who have chosen NCS/STA or GDS or Maret over of Sidwell, rejecting Sidwell's offer of admission. It isn't every "best student's" top choice.

Sidwell is a terrific school, but it's not the only terrific school.

It is and isn't a skewed view. Absolutely, 14:52 is right in terms of teachers and fellow students -- they respect kids for who they are and don't give a damn about where they want to or will go to college. But I think it's also true that the kind of parents you see posting here have a noticeable impact on school culture, especially during junior and senior year. They drive their own poor kids crazy and enough of them are on the same wave length that kids whose families aren't this way end up affected (e.g. spending a lot of time talking their friends off the ledge, believing some of the BS that passes as conventional wisdom, being alienated by the madness and wanting to steer clear of top colleges because of it).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What happens to these kids if they don't want to attend an Ivy League/top 20 college? it seems that is all these poor kids are measured by. And why does everyone assume that if they have good grades and scores that they will necessarily apply to that small range of schools?

My kids are at one of these schools and I don't feel that way at all. I feel my children are highly-valued, and cared for, for who they are as people, as friends, as teammates and, yes, as fellow students. My children work very hard in school, and in their other areas of interest, but I don't have the sense that they feel "measured" as you suggest.

Pp here. That's good to hear and I imagine one gets a skewed view from a discussion board. Because reading these threads, it certainly appears that "success" equals admission to an Ivy League-type school. There is a sense of broad approval that a school is sending its graduates to those schools and fretting about which school has more Harvard or Yale acceptances.

Anonymous wrote:What happens to these kids if they don't want to attend an Ivy League/top 20 college? it seems that is all these poor kids are measured by. And why does everyone assume that if they have good grades and scores that they will necessarily apply to that small range of schools?

My kids are at one of these schools and I don't feel that way at all. I feel my children are highly-valued, and cared for, for who they are as people, as friends, as teammates and, yes, as fellow students. My children work very hard in school, and in their other areas of interest, but I don't have the sense that they feel "measured" as you suggest.

Kids at Sidwell and GDS choose lots of different kinds of schools. The ones who aren't into the whole Ivy/top 20 thing often (maybe typically) get into their first choice and/or have a number of good option to choose from among. My take is that kids in this category may actually get the most out of top privates. They're well-prepared for college, have often had time to really develop their interests, are less plagued by insecurity, and are more likely to get offered merit aid, access to honors programs, athletic scholarships, etc.

What happens to these kids if they don't want to attend an Ivy League/top 20 college? it seems that is all these poor kids are measured by. And why does everyone assume that if they have good grades and scores that they will necessarily apply to that small range of schools?

Sidwell had a poor college advisory program for many years. They made changes and for the last three years the school's results have been impressive. The kids played a huge role too. Based on standardized testing for the junior class - reported on this site - that class will do well too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.lotusprep.com/best-high-schools-dc/

How old is this information?
The info on Montgomery Blair is inaccurate. It should be:
SAT is 1526
NMSF is 40.8% (38 of the 93 seniors are NMSF)

The magnet students are the entire MB student body.

I interview for Yale and I will say that I've been super impressed with the girls I've interviewed from NCS. They do a really good job preparing them for interviews (either specifically or they just end up that way). When I compare them to the kids I've interviewed at some of the other good DC privates (not Big 3), it's a pretty dramatic difference. (I have also been pretty impressed by SWW kids, but I have a much lower sample size there.)

Anonymous wrote:https://www.lotusprep.com/best-high-schools-dc/

How old is this information?
The info on Montgomery Blair is inaccurate. It should be:
SAT is 1526
NMSF is 40.8% (38 of the 93 seniors are NMSF)

I went to a school like that. The kids who start after elementary school are pretty talented. You could pretty much tell who were preppies all the way versus those who hustled in junior high to get in.


If you want your average kid to get an education like that, you have to start young

Anonymous wrote:I don't why you'd use tiny LACs for a list like this. Over half of their tiny freshman classes are athletes. How many DC kids per year go to freaking Pomona? 1 or 2, maybe?

Northwestern and Georgetown would be better additions to that "elite" list to give a more accurate portrayal of college prospects.

IIRC, they included Pomona to have a west coast elite private school represented on the list. Stanford wasn't providing data, so Pomona it was. There aren't any others besides those 2. USC is not considered elite among the boarding school group, and CMC/Caltech/Mudd are too specialized.

The collective compilation of all the LACs is useful data. Individually, they may not say much, but as a group they are important destinations for boarding school students. Some 25-50% of LAC student bodies hail from boarding schools, which is far more than the percent of students who go to one.

I don't why you'd use tiny LACs for a list like this. Over half of their tiny freshman classes are athletes. How many DC kids per year go to freaking Pomona? 1 or 2, maybe?

Northwestern and Georgetown would be better additions to that "elite" list to give a more accurate portrayal of college prospects.

Nah, the students at GDS and Sidwell aren't average and neither is the education those schools provide. They're bright/talented kids with parents who push them toward academic achievement, in a resource-rich environment where every student is expected to pursue higher education. Most parents are highly educated and/or affluent, which gives their kids access to opportunities other kids don't have. And the schools themselves, by virtue of smaller class sizes and not being tied to state standards, can offer more challenging courses and set higher expectations.

There are undoubtedly more smart kids who are poor or middle class than there are smart 1%ers. But in areas like this one, schools that get their pick of the smart 1%ers have some excellent (and many very good) students. As, of course, do the best public magnets. Neither population is "average."